Making a graduation cake - Full Sheet size - I have a 12x18x2 inch pans. Client wants a chocolate and vanilla cake - fillled with Bavarian Cream....what kind of baking tips, torting (or not), etc. do you have....best recipes for cakes this large.....heating core or flower nails...

When I make a cake that large I use flower nails or a heating core for baking. I also put parchment paper on the bottom of the pan to insure a clean release when it is taken out of the pan. I use the same recipes for large cakes as I do for small cakes. I like the WASC and it's variations.

When you go to torte it, cut it, then slide a large cookie sheet in to remove the top layer.

most important thing....................make sure it's on a strong board, otherwise when it's picked up the center where the 2 half sheets meet will crack!! NOT GOOD

where do i put the flower nails...i don't have a heating core...thanks for the other tips - very helpful!

Spray them with baking spray and insert one in the middle or one on each end of the cake pan and pour batter around them. I use 1 in the middle of my 12 x 18 pan (never tried that using two cake flavors) and it comes out just fine.

I just made my first full sheet cake this week. I actually baked a couple of smaller layers since I was using a 1 inch deep half sheet pan, so I didn't have to torte nor did I have to use a flower nail (which I normally do use when baking a 9" x 13"). I did have to get cooling racks large enough for the half sheet since I didn't have any, but having the right size cooling rack was important because I originally tried just holding two side by side and ended up cracking the layer in half.

I absolutely agree about the board. I ended up cutting a cake board from foam core board and then covering that in the cake board foil. That seemed study enough, plus my cake box had a heavy duty base as well.

But the biggest issue I had was that my cake ended up being pretty much the same size as my cake box, which I purchased from the bakery at Wal-Mart. So, after it was all iced, I had to cut off about an inch so that it wouldn't smoosh the icing and I could pipe a border around the bottom. Next time, I will measure the box first and make sure the cake fits before I ice it!